Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Ever After by Kim Harrison, my thoughts

«There's no witch in Cincinnati tougher, sexier, or more screwed
up than bounty hunter Rachel Morgan». From Every which way but dead (book 3 of
the Hollow series).

Aside from having a «tendency» (pun intended)
to name the books in her Hollow series of novels after Clint Eastwood films, Kim
Harrison is quite the competent writer. I have to think so, right, since I've
read every book in the series so far.

I love the quote above. It more than suggests,
in spite of the flaws that there is something more than the ordinary to these
books, something confirmed at least to a point when you read them.

Kim has set up a very elaborate universe of
vampires, witches, demons and elves with more than one original twist. There
have been ups and downs in my reading of the series, but I do come back for
more. I don’t quite understand why, but I do.

I like the fact that Rachel was revealed to
be a demon and also accepted it without too much fuss. Most other writers in
the genre of urban fantasy wouldn't have dared to do that, wouldn't have dared pushing
even those minor boundaries.

Ever After is the eleventh novel in the series.
And even though Rachel has fucked up again and needs to fix it, she has reached
a modicum of calm at her center, isn't the neurotic wreck she was in the first
books. Even Rachel’s relationship with Ivy the vampire isn't that unlikely and
filled with silliness anymore. As Kim has done earlier she continues building
on themes introduced in previous books. There is a progression here that is kind
of effective. She is fairly good at characterization, at least with some
secondary characters for some reason.

And I
do want to know what comes next, even though I see, or at least initially saw
Rachel, the main protagonist as a ridiculous, implausible character.

One thing in particular is bad about this
book. A very important event happens off camera, which can never be good. I
could attribute this to the I-form Harrison
use to tell her stories, but the event would be easy to work into even that, so
it has to be a deliberate choice of the writer and one I can’t say I like very
much.

The stories remain a fashion show of sorts, a
choice I don’t care for either.

And my foremost criticism: These books are
advertised as books for adults, but I think they are much more for young adults
and hardly even that. The way sex and violence and general interaction is
described (or not) is almost approaching that of a children fairy tale, not
really for truly mature readers at all.

I wish writers would stop being so cautious.
I guess it has something to do with the fact that the books are published by
established publishers. They don’t make waves and don’t want their writers to
do so either, and that makes almost all their publications potentially very,
very boring.

As I said, I keep reading these books, but
they don’t excite me and certainly not like they could have, if they hadn't
insulted the reader’s intelligence.

My conclusion, I guess, is that in spite of
some positive elements in the stories, the negative outmatches them. The
potential is far from being actualized. The setup is great, the execution
isn't.

About me

Lise has turned twenty-five and doesn't like it very much. They say it's halfway to fifty. Aside from that Lise has no problems. She has earned a philosophy masters degree at the University of Bergen, and is indeed a very philosophical person, something expressing itself in a number of ways. Lise is Lise, but is otherwise very mysterious, and even though you may feel you recognize her, you would be wrong. She is probably not the mature, sophisticated woman in the office near you.